DAMN the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

During the 19th Century, including the American Civil War, the word "torpedo" referred to any explosive charge.  Today--and since the end of that century--the word "mine" has replaced it when referring to explosives that are hidden in the ground or are mostly out of view by floating somewhere under water.

By mid-1864 Mobile Bay, Alabama was the last major seaport still in Confederate hands.  Admiral David Farragut, local commander of the US Navy, was determined to reclaim the Bay and the surrounding territory for the Union as part of the strategy to bring the Civil Way to its conclusion.  Confederate forces defending Mobile Bay had thoroughly saturated those waters with floating mines--"torpedoes" by the standards of the day.  The torpedoes were cleverly placed so that any ships entering the bay would have to pass directly under the guns of Fort Morgan in order to avoid sailing through the line of torpedoes.  Any ships able to successfully pass the fort would next encounter the powerful Confederate ironclad Tennessee.

On August 5, 1864 Admiral Farragut's naval force entered the channel leading into Mobile Bay.  The lead ship in the line of battle was quickly disabled after colliding with one of the torpedoes, and all of his remaining warships slowed, lost headway, and began drifting under the guns of Fort Morgan.  As disaster loomed for the attacking Union squadron, Admiral Farragut shouted out to the captains of the surviving ships "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"  The torpedoes encountered by the first ships failed to explode; the remaining ships in the line followed in their wakes, overwhelmed the defenders and soon took control of Mobile Bay for the Union.

He was bold.  He got lucky.  He won.



Creating millions of jobs for a $14 trillion 21st Century American economy does not involve the risk of battle deaths and injuries, but it is a much more complex undertaking than anything done during a single military campaign of the Civil War.  This morning's jobs report showed a total of zero net new jobs for the country during the month of August--the private sector created a total of 17,000 new jobs during the month, and government jobs declined by 17,000 for the same period.

That sounds like a real sucking bog of a quagmire to me; it probably does to you, too.

At this point, we can only hope and expect that there is a flurry of activity on the part of governmental policy-makers to absorb the facts of this very disturbing report and then create some type of meaningful, effective, coherent and cohesive Federal government policy to address the shortcomings that have been laid bare in the nation's employment-generating machinery.  Perhaps the activity will take place by representatives from all parts of the political spectrum.  We already know that President Obama is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress next Thursday with a set of job-creating proposals that the Administration has been crafting for at least the last several weeks.

Now is the time to be bold.

Any boldness will encounter land mines of opposition.  Such is the nature of a democracy; it is an inherently messy way to run a country.  Accept it.  Deal with it.  Move on.

Mr. Obama seems to be a fan of Civil War history.  Even if he reads about the Battle of Mobile Bay and is impressed by Admiral Farragut's boldness in the face of an apparently disastrous quagmire, he will probably refrain from using profanity during a nationally-televised address to a joint session of Congress.  And it just wouldn't be the same if he were to say "Darn the torpedoes. . .!"

He has a tough job, so here's a little help for him:  "To the assembled representatives of the Senate and the House of Representatives -- D*#& the _______________ (fill in the blank with your choice of:  debt; torpedoes; obstacles; land mines; politics; etc.); we're going full speed ahead on doing a whole bunch of s%#! to create jobs!  Now let's get on with it!"